Content Organization

CONTENT ORGANIZATION
INTRODUCTION
A teleprinter is something between a typewriter and a fax machine. It is now largely
obsolete. It is an electromechanical typewriter that can be used to communicate typed
messages over a variety of communications channels such as simple electrical
connections and also radio and microwave transmission mediums. They could also send
typed data to the computer with or without printed output, and printing the response from
the computer. Other names for teleprinter are teletypewriter and teletype. There exist
modern descendants of these devices. They are known as computer terminals and are
fully electronic and use a display screen.
HISTORY OF TELEPRINTERS
The teleprinter evolved through a series of inventions by a number of engineers, including
Royal Earl House, David E. Hughes, Edward Kleinschmidt, Charles Krum, Emile Baudot
and Frederick G. Creed. A predecessor to the teleprinter, the stock ticker machine, was
used as early as the 1870s as a method of displaying text transmitted over wires. A specially
designed telegraph typewriter was used to send stock exchange information over
telegraph wires to the ticker machines.
EVOLUTION OF TELEPRINTERS FROM TICKER TAPE MACHINES
Ticker tape was the earliest digital electronic communications medium, transmitting stock
price information over telegraph lines, in use between around 1870 through 1970. It
consisted of a paper strip, which ran through a machine called a stock ticker, which
printed abbreviated company names and other numeric data.
USES OF TELEPRINTERS
- Dial-up systems
- Data processing applications like integrating the accounting, billing, management,
production, purchasing, sales, shipping and receiving departments within an organization
to speed internal communications.
- They were an early form of E-mail, done with electromechanical gear.
- Broadcast systems such as weather information distribution and “news wires”.
- “Loop” systems, where anything typed on any machine on the loop printed on all the
machines.
FUNCTIONING OF TELEPRINTER KEYBOARDS
Most teleprinters used the 5-bit Baudot code. This limited the character set to 32 codes.
One had to use a "FIGS" shift key to type numbers and special characters. Special
versions of teleprinters had FIGS characters for specific applications. Other codes, such as
ASCII were introduced but never became as popular as Baudot. Computers used
teleprinters for input and output from the early days of computing. Punched card readers
and fast printers replaced teleprinters for most purposes, but teleprinters continued to be
used as interactive time-sharing terminals until video displays became widely available in
the late 1970s.
HOW THEY BECAME OBSOLETE
Although printing news, messages, and other text at a distance is still universal, the
dedicated teleprinter tied to a pair of leased copper wires was made functionally obsolete
by the fax, personal computer, inkjet printer, broadband, and the Internet. In the 1980s,
packet radio became the most common form of digital communications used in amateur
radio. Soon, advanced multimode electronic interfaces were developed, which could send
and receive not only packet, but also various other modulation types including Baudot.
This made it possible for a home or laptop computer to replace teleprinters, saving money,
complexity, space and the massive amount of paper which mechanical machines used.
TELEPRINTERS TIMELINE
1887: First private-line telegraph service, for L. H. Taylor & Co., brokers, between their
offices in New York and Philadelphia.
1888: First service for news media customer, Globe Newspaper Company, between
New York and Boston.
1915: Teletype offers speeds of 30 or 50 words per minute.
1920s: Press and financial markets create a boom for usage of the service.
1939: Speed reaches 75 words per minute.
1944: Speed reaches 100 words per minute.
1957: Teleprinter introduces speeds of 300 words per minute.
1970s: Decline in usage begins as electronic data processing replaces many telegraph
functions.
1980s: Wireless and digital methods accelerate decline.
1991: AT&T exits telegraph service.
TICKER TAPE PARADES
A ticker tape parade is a parade event held in a downtown urban setting, allowing the
jettison of large amounts of shredded paper products from nearby office buildings onto the
parade route, creating a celebratory effect by the snowstorm-like flurry.
The term originated in New York City after a spontaneous celebration held on October 28,
1886 during the dedication of the Statue of Liberty.
The term ticker tape originally referred to the use of the paper output of ticker tape
machines, which were remotely driven devices used in brokerages to provide updated
stock market quotes.
In New York City, ticker-tape parades are reserved for special occasions. Soon after the
first such parade in 1886, city officials realized the utility of such events and began to hold
them on triumphal occasions.
They are generally reserved now for space exploration triumphs, military honors and
sports championships. The section of lower Broadway through the Financial District that
serves as the parade route for these events is colloquially called the "Canyon of Heroes".
Lower Broadway in New York City has plaques in the sidewalk at regular intervals to
celebrate each of the city's ticker-tape parades.
VIDEOS
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=9012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snPY38ZIxsA